Darren Adam Heitner, Esq. is the Founder of HEITNER LEGAL, Founder/CEO of Dynasty Dealings, LLC, Professor of Sports Law at the University of Florida and University of Florida Levin College of Law and Founder/Chief Editor of Sports Agent Blog, a leading niche industry publication. He is an attorney licensed to practice on the state and federal level, and focuses on sports, entertainment, and intellectual property litigation and transactional work.
Darren is the author of How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know (published by the American Bar Association), Contributing Writer of An Athlete’s Guide to Agents, 5th Edition, and has authored many sports, entertainment and intellectual property-related Law Journal articles.
Darren has a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Florida and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the same institution.

The Sun Belt Conference Teams Up With XOS Digital To Increase Its Digital Footprint

The collegiate sports business world is quickly evolving, and XOS Digital believes it is making a giant first step into the consolidation of sponsorship activation. XOS Digital works with over 300 sports organizations to provide advanced technology enabled solutions to accomplish two goals: (1) to improve team performance, and (2) to capture, preserve and create enhanced value for their digital media assets.

Yesterday, XOS Digital announced that it signed an agreement with the Sun Belt Conference that will allow the company to launch and manage a new Sun Belt Digital Network, enlist and manage the official corporate sponsors of the Sun Belt Conference, and implement the XOS “Integrated Sponsor Activation Platform.” The Platform will permit sponsors to be integrated into the new Network (including games that will be accessible on mobile devices and tablets) along with other television and radio opportunities.

“In order to activate a sports sponsorship effectively for a collegiate property, you really need to have deep and advanced technology,” said XOS Digital CEO, Chris McCleary. XOS Digital believes that its technology, which has been developed in-house without any subcontracting, is the essence of how a sponsor will be able to get full advantage of its investment with the Sun Belt Conference. McCleary provided an example to Forbes in order to illustrate his company’s technology. “When you stream a live event that is not covered in broadcast contract with ESPN, how does a corporate sponsor avail itself of the opportunity to get an insert or a message into that stream? With the technology we own, we can capture scoreboard data live, we know when the clock stops and starts, and we know when to insert messages.”

XOS Digital is not only going to assist the Sun Belt Conference in displaying value to sponsors for live feeds, but also for recorded material. The company will accomplish that goal through the integration of recorded content with the advertiser’s message by taking the highlights from recorded games and implanting corporate logos and through the integration of corporate messages that fit seamlessly within the content. ”For years, brands have had to deal with multiple players – the rights holder and all the activation providers that the rights holder enlists,” explained McCleary. ”But now, this partnership is a prime example of the first time that a single source is handling all the necessary elements – which is huge for major brands and teams alike.”

The Sun Belt Conference had worked with IMG College with regards to multimedia rights prior to the Conference’s agreement with XOS Digital. All of the Conference’s sponsorship inventory will now be in the hands of XOS Digital, which believes it is in the position to provide added value to former corporate sponsors and unrealized opportunities to companies that have not yet entered the college sports space. The Sun Belt Conference is also excited about XOS Digital’s potential to increase media exposure.

“This is an important step for the Sun Belt Conference as our partnership with XOS will result in a significant increase to our digital footprint,” said Karl Benson, Sun Belt Conference Commissioner. “This agreement provides all the necessary resources to connect our brand to our audience and it will help entice sponsors.”

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